Procter & Gamble Co. is enlisting help from mommy bloggers as it makes over its Canadian custom-published quarterly Rouge for a full-scale U.S. launch expected to reach 11 million households in both countries by next year....
...The appeal driving mentions of Rouge among bloggers is pretty simple: It's available at the internet's favorite price (free) and comes loaded with coupons, which happen to drive much of the routine chatter regarding package-goods brands in social media.
I do wonder if the mommy bloggers will get behind the cause without a quid pro quo; maybe the bad economy is what makes coupons an attractive ploy. Even without knowing the cost per unit, I'm inclined to think that P&G will eventually kill the physical magazine and focus on the web site after a few issues (i.e., once they've captured the names). Then again, a custom publication isn't at the mercy of the horrific ad sales environment, and with publications going out of business, it may be a buyer's market in the print biz.
Anyway, they got their links and couple of minutes of free press out of me, so I guess I'm an honorary mommy blogger after all...
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Well timed post--I got "Rouge" in my mail today and wondered what was up with a P&G custom pub. You saved me a Google search! Apparently I hit some demographic target of theirs, though I remain blog-less. Or blog-free.
ReplyDeleteI bloged last week about the horrid goo-goo writing in some of those Mommy-centred magazines. I hope Rogue has a little more content--and charisma.
ReplyDeleteAnd being printer-less at home, those coupons are pretty much useless to me, so the magazine might appeal a little more...
@Steph--that's bizarre timing, eh? If you have further comments on the quality of it, I'm all ears.
ReplyDelete@Teenie, just wait till li'l Bump gets to be 5 years old. Trust me, you'll not only need a printer, you'll need to buy ink by the barrel.
Jake, I haven't read it yet, though it looked attractive enough that I didn't through it away. Then again, that may say more about my interest in custom publishing than its appeal. I'll let you know what I think.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the moral is: With newspapers going out of business left and right, people need to get their coupons from somewhere. And coupons are still hard to manage on the web.
ReplyDeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteAnother great Blog entry; thanks.
Regards,
Your LinkedIn friend